alone to encounter them My best course is since they enforce mee to run away to the fencing schoole and leave you here in the Skirmish Samippus By no meanes You have in part vanquish't them I as you see am to enter combate with the King who challengeth mee and to refuse him were dishonourable Lycinus By Iupiter you will presently be wounded by him For 't is very Princely to receive wounds in a Duell for a Kingdome Samippus You say true I have received a slight wound but in no open place of my body which shall hereafter betray any deform'd scarre But do you see how upon reencounter I have with one thrust of my speare pierced both him and his horse Next cutting off his head and taking off his Crowne how I am saluted King and publiquely adored From the Barbarians I expect adoration over whom I will rule by the Graecian Lawes and be stiled one Emperour of both Afterwards imagine how many Citties I will build to my name how many I will demolish and take by force if they contemne my Government But my chiefe persecution shall fall on rich Cydias who being my neighbour dispossest mee of my field and by degrees encroacht upon my borders Lycinus Finish your warres Samippus 't is now time after such great Conquests to celebrate your victories at Babylon with a feast For your Empire I believe hath extended beyond your furlong and that Timolaus take his turne and wish what he please Samippus But how like you my wishes Lycinus Lycinus As much more laborious most admired Prince and troublesome then Adimantus wishes since hee desired only a life of pleasure and to entertaine his friendes with two Talent Gobletts But you were hurt in a Duel and were cast into feares and anxietyes night and day And were not only surrounded with Affrightments from your enemyes but with a thousand Domesticke Treasons Besides the envy hatred and flatteryes of those with whom you convers't Among whom you had not a true friend but all their affections were dissembled and acted out of hope or feare The fruition of your very dreames was not pleasant Only you had Glory purple garments embroyder'd with Gold a white fillett about your head and a guard to goe before you The rest is toyle insupportable joyn'd with much anguish For you are to entertaine Embassadours from the enemy or to sit in judicature or to publish Edicts to your Subjects Then some Nation rebels or some Forrayne invasions are made upon your Empire So that your feares and suspicions are perpetuall And you appeare happier to all men then to your selfe Can that condition be noble wherein you feele the same sicknesse as peasants doe nor doth a feaver distinguish you as a King nor death feare your Guards but making what accesses to you it pleaseth carries you away lamenting without any reverence to your Crowne Whilest you falling from your height and snatcht from your Throne and going the common way of men and made equall to the vulgar by being lost among the heard of the departed leave behind you upon earth onely a high Tombe or exalted Pillar or Pyramide rising in equall angles as so many late and insensible honours The Statues and Temples which flattering Citties raise to you your great name also perish all by degrees and dye neglected Or if they be of any long continuance what fruition can they afford to one sencelesse of them You see then what feares perplexities and toyles befall you alive and what shall befall you after death 'T is now your turne to wish Timolaus see you aske discreetlyer then these two as it becomes a prudent man and one acquainted with affaires Timolaus Judge you then Lycinus what is faulty in my wish and what to be corrected I desire not gold or Treasure or sacks of Coyne or Kingdomes and Warres and Affrights of Empire which you deservedly rejected For all these things are unstable and fraught with Treasons and carry with them more trouble then delight But I would aske of Mercury certaine Rings of those severall vertues The first should keepe mee in a firme consistency and health of body invulnerable also and free from distempers The next should make the wearer invisible like that of Gyges I would have another which should instill into mee the strength of ten thousand men and enable mee single to carry a weight scarce to be lifted by an Army I would have another Ring which should enable mee to fly aloft from the ground I would also charme as many as I pleased asleep Doores also at my approach should voluntarily open the lockes flie backe and the bolts fall off and this to be performed with one Ring But above all I would have one more powerfull then the rest which worne should make mee amiable to handsome Boyes Women and whole Nations and should so enamour and enflame them and make mee so desirable as to be their discourse Women impatient of their desires should hang themselves and boyes grow madde and account him happy on whom I vouchsafe to looke And they whom I neglected should pine away with griefe Briefly It should render mee more beautifull then Hyacinthus or Hylas or the Chian Phaon And thus would I be not for a short time or according to the measure of the life of man but a thousand yeares renewing my youth after youth and still returning to the age of seventeene and casting off my decayes like serpents In this state I will lacke nothing Whatsoever others possesse shall be mine by my power to open doores lay the Keepers asleepe and enter invisible If there be any thing in the Easterne or Northerne parts of the World of strange and unusuall spectacle or if there be any thing pretious or pleasant to be eaten or drunke I would without sending for them my selfe fly thither and enjoy them to a satiety And because a Griffin is a winged beast and the Phoenix a fowle to be seene in India and no where else I would behold them there I would also discover the head of Nilus and the uninhabited parts of the earth and the Antipodes if there be any such who inhabit the adverse Hemisphaere of the world Next I would know the nature of the Starres of the Moone and Sun himselfe being praesecur'd from their fires But my greatest delight should be in the same day to report at Babylon who vanquisht at Olympia And if perhaps I dine in Syria to suppe in Italy Then if I had an enemy to take an invisible revenge of him and dash out his braines with a stone On the contrary to bestow secret courtesies on my friends and showre gold on them in their sleepes If there were a proud man or a rich disdainfull Tyrant I would take him up some twenty furlongs and then precipitate him Then without controule might I converse with faire boyes and make invisible approaches by laying all asleepe but they onely What a spectacle wee it to hoyer aloft in the Ayre above
Midas Hovv much gold do I misse Sardanapalus And I hovv much pleasure Menippus So this I like vveep on I le joyne vvith you and sing the old sentence Know thy selfe A fit dittie to be mingled vvith your mournings A Dialogue between Pluto and Mercury Pluto DO you know old Eucrates the usurer who has not one child but five thousand Gapers after his estate Mercury The Sicyonian you mean what of him Pluto Let him live Mercury ninety yeers more to the ninety he hath lived allready and longer if it be possible But fetch hither his flatterers young Charinus and Damon and the rest Mercury That would shew very preposterous Pluto Rather very just For why do they pray so earnestly for his death but that they may enjoy his estate But that which is yet most base is that at that very time when they wish his Death they grossely observe and Court him And when he is sick all men know what they desire yet they vow sacrifices for his recovery In a word they have severall wayes of flattery Wherefore let him be immortall and let them die first and loose their gapings Mercury Well being such knaves their punishment shall be ridiculous But methinks he lures them on pretty handsomly and feeds them with hopes allwaies dissembling as if he were about to die when he is much lustier then his Flatterers They in the mean time dividing the inheritance among them are fed vvith the Image of a Phantastick happinesse Pluto Let him therefore like Iolaus cast off his old age and grovv young again But let them in the midd'st of their hopes be snatch avvay as it vvere in a golden dream and like evill men die evill deaths Mercury Enough Pluto I vvill send them to you one after another I think they are seaven Pluto Call forth their souls Mercury and let him send them every one hither before him but let him of an old man become a youth A Dialogue between Terpsion and Pluto Terpsion IS this Justice Pluto that I should die who am but thirty yeers old and that Thucritus who is almost an hundred should live Pluto Great Justice Terpsion For though he lives yet he wishes none of his friends dead whereas you all the time you lived laid nets for his estate Terpsion Was 't not fit being an old man and no longer able to use his riches he should die and leave them to those that are younger Pluto You make new lawes Terpsion that when a man can no longer use his riches with pleasure he ought to die Fate and Nature decree otherwise Terpsion I accuse them therefore of disorder For the businesse ought to run in this succession The most aged to die first then those who are next in years And not to be inverted or he to live who is decrepit hath but three teeth left scarce sees is supported by four servants distills at nose hath eyes filled with rheume hath lost all sense of pleasure and is laught at by boyes as a living sepulchre and the most beautifull and lustiest young men to die This is to make rivers run backwards At least 't were fit we knew the date of old mens lives that they might not cousen us as they do But now the old Proverb is brought to passe the Cart leads the Oxe Pluto These things are wiselier carried Terpsion then you are aware of For what ailes you that you yawne after other mens fortunes and enslave your selves to childlesse old men you do therefore but make your selves ridiculous and they bury you first which to many is metter of great pleasure for just as you pray'd for their deaths so much delight is it to others to have you die first For you have introduced a new Art to make love to old women and old men especially to those who have no children neglecting those that have whilest many of those who are courted by you well acquainted with your aimes if they chance to have children pretend to hate them that they may have observers At length those who had for a long time wasted themselves in gifts are shut out of the will and the sonne as there is good reason enjoyes all the rest cheated of their hopes gnash their teeth Terpsion You speak truth Thucritus hath almost quite eaten my estate still making me believe he would die And as often as I came to visit him he would groan and sob inwardly and counterfeit a noise like an abortive chick in the shell wherefore by how much the neerer I thought him to his grave so many gifts the more did I send him least his other flatterers should exceed me in presents many nights have my cares taken my sleep from me numbring and disposing my fortunes And indeed care and watching were the causes of my death whilest he having swallowed my bait assisted at my funerall and went before my beer laughing Pluto Maist thou live eternally Thucritus to grow rich and laugh at such men And maist thou not die till thou have sent hither all thy flatterers before thee Terpsion It would be a pleasure to me too Pluto if Chariades should die before Thucritus Pluto Take comfort Terpsion Phido Melantus and all the rest shall die before him of their Cares Terpsion This I like Live eternally Thucritus A Dialogue between Zenophantes and Callidemides Zenoph BUt how died you Callidemides you know I being Dinias parasite did over-eat my selfe and was choak't with a surfet you stood by when I died Callid I did Zenophantes I died unexpectedly you know old Ptaeodorus Zenoph You mean the rich Usurer who hath no child whose house you alwaies frequented Callid I alwaies observ'd him and flatter'd my selfe with his death but when I saw my expectation prolonged and that he began to be older then Tython I contrived a compendious way to gain his estate For having bought poyson I dealt with his Butler that when Ptaeodorus next call'd for drink and he usually drinks deeply he should steal it into the bowle having it ready and give it him which if he did I swore to make him a freeman Zenoph And what happen'd For me thinks you are about to tell a strange story Callid We went to bath our selves where his Boy held two cuppes one for Ptaeodorus which held the poyson the other for me But mistaking I know not how he gave the poyson to me and the sound cup to Ptaeodorus who presently drunk it off when at the instant I fell down dead and excused his funerall with my own Why do you smile Zenophantes you do not well to laugh at your friend Zenoph You have suffer'd things to he laught at Callidemides But how lookt the old man at your fall Callid First he was frighted with the Accident But being inform'd I believe how things were he laught at what the Butler had done Zenoph You did ill to make such short contrivances for a thing which would in ordinary course much safelier have happen'd had you made lesse hast A Dialogue
stroke and had died first Though I had died as a Tyrant yet I had left a revenger whereas now I die not only without a sonne but without one to kill me Having thus said he stabbed himself trembling and unable to thrust home having a desire but not strength enough for the attempt How many punishments were here how many wounds how many deaths how many slaughters how many Garlands due To Conclude then you have all seen the sonne prostrated and slaine no small or easy atchievement You have seen the father fallen on his sonne and mingling blouds together Both the triumph of my sword and made one sacrifice to your Liberty and my Conquest You have seen my sword lying betwixt them and approving it selfe worthy of me its master and witnessing how faithfully it dispatcht my businesse which had been lesse from my hand and increast its glory from the strangenesse Lastly I am he who have removed the Tyranny though the carriage and progresse of the atchievement like so many parts in a Tragedy were divided among many The chiefest part â— acted the next the Son the third the Father my Sword was Engine and Servant to us all The Dis-inherited Son The Argument A Dis-inherited Son learnt Physick and caring his Father of a Phrenzy after he was given over by other Physitians was restored to favour Afterwards being commanded to cure his Step-Mother of the like Phrenzy and refusing he is dis-inherited the second time He defends himself THat which my Father hath now done O ye Judges is neither new nor strange nor is this the first time he hath been carried away by his displeasure but hath heretofore made use of this Law and is practised in his proceedings against me at this Tribunall All that is new in my present Misfortune is that having committed noe offence fit to be brought into Accusation I am in danger to be punisht for my Art because it cannot in all things obey his impossible commands Then which what can be more unreasonable For he requires that my Skill should be as great as his Injunctions and that I should work Cures not as my Profession is able but as he is pleased to impose I could therefore wish there were not only Receipts in Physick to recover people distracted but those also who are without cause inclined to passion that so I might cure my Father of one disease more who being perfectly freed from one Distraction is carried by his anger into another And to make my câ—se the more deplorable he is recovered to every body else only against me who recover'd him he still retains his fury You see how I am rewarded for my Cure who am cast off by him and made a Stranger to his Family the second time As if he had only restored me for a while that to my greater infamy he might often banish me his house To those cures which fall within the compasse of my skill I expect not to be commanded who voluntarily and unsent for wrought his recovery but where the Malady carries despair with it I would not willingly be an undertaker Of all others I have good reason not to attempt the cure of this woman considering what I am likely to suffer from my Father if I miscarry who for not daring to adventure upon her am dis-inherited I cannot therefore O ye Judges but bewaile my Step-Mother in the case she is in for she was a vertuous woman next my Father who suffers in her Madnesse but especially my self who am thought disobedient because I cannot effect what I am required both for the greatnesse of the disease and the smallnesse of my skill To be dis-inherited then for not undertaking a cure which I am not able to effect I hold most unjust and desire you to judge from these present proceedings upon what grounds I was cast off heretofore Though I doubt not but for the clearing of them my Behaviour and life have long since been my Defence To those things whereof I am now accused I will answer as well as I can having first briefly acquainted you with the state of my case At that time when my Father ceas'd not to proclaime me for a stubborn rebellious disobedient Son the disgrace of my Parents and infamy of my house I thought it best not to make only a short Defence but leaving his house thought my best remedy and appeal would be to my future carriage and life when it should appear how free I was form his aspersions and in what honest studies I imployed my self and what vertuous company I kept For I then foresaw and had it in my suspicion that my Father being of no very sound mind would at some time or other without my desert grow furious and hatch false accusations against me And some there were who construed those proceedings as the beginning of his Distraction and judged his causelesse hatred of me his froward carriage his meditated railings hard censures clamorous fits of anger and extreme inclination to Choller as so many threats and forerunning darts of an approaching Phrenzy Wherefore I thought it would concern me to learn Physick with all speed and thereupon went to Travell and acquainting my self with the most approved Physitians of other Countries with much labour and diligent study I learned the Art At my return I find my Father plainly distracted and given over by other Physitians who do not sound or make any exact judgment of diseases I therefore as it became a pious Son neither remembred my Abdication nor staid to be sent for having indeed nothing personall to lay to his charge since his ill dealings with me were not his own but the faults of his disease Offering therefore my self as I said unsent for I proceeded not presently to his cure which had been to depart form my usuall practice and from the lawes of our Profession by which we are taught first to examine whither the disease be cureable or incureable and exceed the limits of our Art And then if it be undertakeable we apply remedies and imploy our whole studies about the recovery of the Patient But if we find the Malady too strong and not to be conquer'd we forbear to prescribe at all but observe their ancient Rule who were the Inventors and Fathers of the Art who forbid us to medle with overgrowne diseases Finding therefore my Father nor past hope nor his distemper past cure having first weighed all circumstances I undertook him and confidently gave him Physick Many of the standers by suspecting my prescription spake in disparagement of the cure and were ready to call me into question my Step-Mother also was present fearfull and distrustfull not of hate to me but care to him whom she perfectly knew so ill disposed having long converst and been a witnesse to his Distemper yet I not at all discouraged knowing his Symptomes did not lye and that my Art could not deceive me at fit times stole a cure into him Though some who were my
venerable to his Macedonians but it followes not that therefore he should be preferred before a valiant and Warlike Captain who still went more by Counsell then Fortune Minos He hath made a generous speech for himselfe and not to be expected from a Lybian What say you to this Alexander Alexander 'T is fit Minos I should make no reply to such a bold fellow since fame can sufficiently instruct thee how great a Prince I was and how great a Thiefe he Yet consider how farre I excell him who began my Atchievements with my youth when succeeding in a troubled and distracted State I tooke revenge of my Fathers Murtherers Afterwards striking a terrour into all Greece by my conquest of Thebes they chose me their Generall nor was I content to straighten my selfe within the Kingdome of Macedonia left me by my Father but projected the victory of all the world Thinking it poor not to raigne over the Universe with a small Army I entred into Asia and in a great battle wonne Lydia Ionia and Phrygia And conquering all as I march't I came to Issus where Darius with an Army consisting of Myriads expected me After this Minos you may remember how many thousand shades I sent you in one day The Ferry-man saies his Boat was not sufficient but that he was faine to joyne boards together and waft them over upon planks And this I did still exposing my selfe first to danger and offering my selfe to wounds And that I may not recount to you what I did at Tyre and in the fields of Arbela I went as farre as India and made the Ocean the period of my empire tooke their Elephants and brought away Porus Captive Passing over Tanais in a great horse fight I vanquish't the Scythians a people not to be contemned Rewarded my followers and revenged my selfe of my foes If men thought me a God they are to be pardoned being perswaded from the greatnesse of my Actions After all I died a King Whereas Hanniball died Banish't in the Court of Prusias the Bythinian A fit death for so deceitfull and perjured a fellow For I forbeare to tell how he overcame the Italians not by valour but by cousenage perfidiousnesse and stratagems There being nothing just or cleare in all that enterprize But whereas he objects to me my Luxury he forgets what he did at Capua where he had his Mistresses and like an admired souldier voluptuously squander'd away the opportunities of warre Had not I out of my contempt of the Westerne parts turned my march to the east what great matter had I atchieved Have taken Italy perchance without bloud or have subdued Lybia to the utmost coasts of Africk These were Countries below my Conquests being already terrified by my fame and acknowledging me for their Lord. I have said give sentence Minos And let these few Atchievements pick't out of many suffice Scipio Stay Minos till you have heard me too Minos What are you Brave Sir or from whence come you Scipio I am the Romane Scipio who overthrew Carthage and in many great Battles subdued Lybia Minos What would you say more Scipio Marry that I am inferiour to Alexander but greater then Hanniball who conquered and pursued him and compelled him to a dishonorable flight He is therefore very impudent to compare himselfe with Alexander with whom I who vanquisht him presume not to rank my selfe in comparison Minos Afore Iove thou speakest rightly Scipio wherefore I pronounce Alexander to be first next to him you Scipio and if you please let Hanniball be third since he is not utterly to be despised A Dialogue between Diogenes and Alexander Diogenes HOw now Alexander are you dead too like all us Alexander You see I am Diogenes nor is it strange being a mortall man I should die Diogenes Did Iupiter Ammon lye then when he said you were his Son or were you in earnest the Son of Phillip Alexander Of Philip it seems had I been descended of Iupiter I had been Immortall Diogenes But there went a report of your Mother Olympia that a Dragon should couple with her and be seen in her Chamber and that from thence she should conceive and bring forth you and that Philip was deceived to think himself your Father Alexander I have heard such a Report but now I see that neither my Mother nor the Priests of Iupiter are to be credited Diogenes Yet their lye stood you Alexander in good stead in your Enterprises for many were struck with an opinion of your Divinity But tell me pray to whom have you left your great Empire Alexander I know not Diogenes I had no more leisure to dispose it then just at my Death to give my Ring to Perdiccas But why laugh you Diogenes Diogenes How can I choose Have you forgot what the Grecians did when at your entrance into your Kingdome they flatter'd and chose you their Prince and General against the Barbarians and how some placed you among the twelve Gods built Temples and Sacrificed to you as the Son of the Dragon But tell me where have the Macedonians buried you Alexander I have lain these three dayes at Babylon But Ptolemy my Armour bearer hath promis'd as soon as the Tumults now on foot will give him leisure to carry me into Aegypt and bury me there that I may become one of the Aegyptian Gods Diogenes Shall I not laugh Alexander when I see you play the fool in Hell and hope to be made some Anubis or Osiris Throw off your Ambition Divine Sir for 't is not possible for any who have once past over the Infernal Lake and entred the mouth of the Cave to return neither is Aeacus invigilant or Cerberus to be contemn'd I would therefore gladly learn of you how you bear the remembrance of the felicity you left above your Guards and Squires and Peers your Treasures and Countries which adored you Babylon also and Bactria besides your Elephants Honour and Glory when you were carried in Triumphs your head bound about with a white Coronet and your self clothed with Purple doe you not relent at the memory of these things why weepest thou Fool did not your wise Master Aristotle teach you not to account any of the gifts of Fortune stable Alexander Call you him Wise who was the basest of Flatterers there 's none knows so much of Aristotle as â— what suits he made and what letters he wrot to me and how he abused my Ambition to Learning soothing and extolling me sometimes for my Beauty as if it been a piece of the highest Good sometimes for my Actions and Treasure maintaining that Riches were Good that he might I believe with the lesse shame refuse them He was a Jugler Diogenes and Cheater All that I gained by his wisdome is to grieve for those things you mentioned as for the greatest goods Diogenes He teach you a cure for your sorrovv Since there grovvs no Hellebore here drink as great a draught of Lethe as you can and you vvill never
since I never yet met with the person who in all things answered the Character of a Wise man In the mean time I cannot but marvaile if you should dislike my present course of life who long since know what great gains came in to me when I was a pleader at that time when you went to see France and the Western Ocean and met with me who was then reckoned among the most high priced Orators This Apology my Friend have I amid'st a thousand Imployments made to you as one who shall not slightly value your favourable and full acceptance For as for others though they all should conspire in their Accusations my protection shall be the old Proverb Hippoclides cares not The Tyrant-Slayer The Argument One got into a Fortresse where a Tyrant lived with a purpose to kill him But not finding him kill'd his Son and left the sword in his body The Tyrant coming in and seeing his Son dead with the same sword kills himself He that slew the Son demands the reward of a Tyrant-slayer THough O ye Judges I have in one day slain two Tyrants one aged and feeble the other young and vigorous and so the more apt to succeed in his Fathers oppressions yet I stand here to demand but one recompence for both Of all those that ever kill'd Tyrants I am the first who have freed you from two with one wound and have slain the Son with my Sword the Father with his Affection to his Son who hath made us ample satisfaction for those things he hath done in living to see his Son first murthered and then a thing till now strange forced to be the Tyrant-slayer to himself His Son dyed by my hand and being dead became my Engine to a second Murther who in his life time partaked with his father in his Injustice and at his death as well as he could became his Parricide 'T is I then who have put an end to his Tyranny and 't is my Sword which hath wrought your deliverance However I inverted the order of my slaughter and atchieved their murthers an unusuall way killing him who was the stronger and ablest to defend himself with my own hand and leaving my bare sword to dispatch the other I expected therefore from you something extraordinary and that my rewards should in number equall those I have destroyed seeing I have not only freed you from your present calamities but from all fears of future and have establisht you in a firme liberty there being no heir left of your mischiefs But on the contrary after such glorious atchievements I am not only in danger to be dismissed by you unrewarded but am the only man who am denyed the recompence designed me by those Laws I have preserved He therefore that withstands my demand in my judgment doth it not with reflection upon the publick but out of sorrow to those who are slain and revenge to him who was the author of their death Afford me therefore your attention Judges whilst I decipher to you though you know them already the miseries of a Tyranny for thereby you will both discern the greatnesse of my benefit and increase your joies from the apprehension of those calamities from whence you are releast First then we felt not a single Tyranny as it many times befalls others nor were enslaved in a single bondage nor subjected to the desires of one Master but of all others who ever suffer'd the like in stead of one Tyrant had two over us and were miserably distracted by severall oppressions The Father indeed was the more moderate and hardlier to be enraged slacker in his punishments and slower in his lusts his age having at length mitigated his violence and cast a bridle on his desires Nay at the very first as it was said he was contrary to his own inclination put upon his unlawfull practices by his Son being not himself Tyrannicall but only in complyance with him for how extreme dear his Son was to him appeared by his death His Son was to him all things him he obeyed oppress'd whom he commanded punisht as he appointed and observed him in all things In a word the Son was Tyrant over the Father and the Father was but an Officer to his Sons lusts And though the young man by reason of his age let the old enjoy the Honour and esteemed not the name of the Kingdome yet he in truth was the head Tyrant And though the Father fortified and secured his power by him yet the Son alone enjoyed the fruits of the others Injustice He it was who ordered the Guard appointed Garrisons cut off those who affected the Crown and feared Conspirators He it was who made Eunuchs violated Wedlocks and deflowred Virgins All Slaughters Banishments Exactions Torturs and Injuries were his bold Contrivances whilst the old man only obeyed and countenanced and applauded the wicked enterprises of his Son This made our calamities insupportable For when the desires of the mind are backt by supream power they admit no limits of Irregularity But that which grieved us most was that we foresaw a perpetuall Slavery growing upon us and the common wealth likely to descend in a succession from one Master to another and the people in a direct way to be made the Inheritance of a wicked Tyrant Whereas it hath been no small comfort to men in our case to be able to discourse and say among themselves This Tyrant will not alwaies live he will dye in time and we shall ere long be free vvhich fell not under our hopes For vve had in our eyes a Successor in the Tyranny vvhich made none of our Citizens dare to put in practice my adventure though they were valiant and had my attempt in their designe and wishes But Liberty was despaired of by all and the Tyranny seemed inexpugnable though many had inclinations to the enterprize This daunted me not nor was I dishearten'd by the difficulty of the Action nor frighted with the danger But unassisted and single I went against a strong and numerous Tyranny or rather not single but assisted by my sword which shared in my slaughter of the Tyrant Having death before my eyes and the publick Liberty purchased by my death before my apprehension First then encountring the outer Guard and not easily putting the keepers to flight and killing him that came next and offered to make resistance I reacht at length the toppe of my adventure the only strength of the Tyranny and the spring head of all our miseries And rushing into the keeper of the Castle after a valiant defence and resistance of many thrusts and wounds I slew him At which instant the Tyranny ceast and my enterprize had an end And from that time we recovered our Liberty No impediment remained but an old solitary man unarmed deprived of his Guard especially of his great Protector and unworthy to fall by a valiant hand I therefore most equall Judges made this discourse to my selfe All things are fallen
another comming after me had killd the Tyrant tell me had it been unreasonable for you to reward me or if I should say My dear Countreymen I purposed intended attempted show'd my good will and am only worthy to be rewarded what would you answer But this is not all I can say I scaled the Fort Countreymen and encircled my selfe with a thousand dangers before I slew the Prince For I would not have you think it an easy or slight adventure for one man singly to break through a Troop to vanquish a guard and to put such a multitude to flight But to account it the Toppe and pinnacle of the exploit For a Tyrant is no hard thing to be encountred and overcome but those who guard and defend the Tyranny which who so conquers hath finisht his enterprize and left little else to be atchieved I then had never approacht the Tyrants had I not first vanquish't and overcome their Guards and attendants Upon which part of my adventure before I go farther let me dwell a little I vanquisht their guards I say and overcame their attendants and left the Tyrant naked disarmed and undefended Am I yet think you worthy of Honour or do you require his slaughter too if you do I can satisfie your expectation Behold the Bloud with which I am yet sprinkled since the valiant and stout murther of a youth of flourishing age feared by all by whom the Tyrant was secured from Treasons and who was his confidence and a greater protection to him then his Guards And am I not yet think you worthy of reward but shall I after all my great Actions be sent away dishonourably what if I had slaine but one of his Guard or an attendant on his person or some favourite servant Had it not been a glorious Act to ascend a Fort and in the midst of a Garrison to kill a near friend of the Tyrants Consider next him who was slaine 'T was the sonne of the Tyrant or rather the crueller Tyrant of the two A master more insufferable to revenge proner in his injuries more furious and above all the only heire of his father and like to prolong our Calamities by his succession Suppose I had only slaine him and that the Tyrant had saved himselfe by flight I demand a reward for that Action What say you will you deny me was 't not he you dreaded was not he your cruel intolerable master If I have not yet done enough consider the heart and utmost of my exploit that which my Gainsayer requires of me I have gloriously atchieved and through anothers vvound have slaine the Tyrant not at one single blovv vvhich perhaps after so much injustice he could have vvisht but by a slovv and lingring griefe prostrating before his eyes the thing most deare to him his sonne I meane vitious but in the spring of his age and flourishing and like his father wallowing in his own bloud and Gore These are the right wounds of parents these the swords of him who would truely kill a Tyrant And this is the death which cruell Tyrants are to suffer and this is a revenge fit for so many oppressions To die presently as it were in a short swoone and behold no tormenting spectacle is a punishment too unworthy of a Tyrant I was not ignorant Judges I was not ignorant nor any man else how passionately he was affected towards his sonne and how he resolved not to survive him a minute All parents are affectionate to their children But he had a stronger and juster reason having but him only to uphold and preserve the Tyrannie To ward and shield him from conspiracies and fix the scepter in his hand 'T was in my foresight therefore that if his affection did not his despaire would presently kill him assone as he consider'd that having lost his safety with his sonne he had no encouragement to live longer In one Troope I presented to his apprehension his naturall affection griefe despaire feare and terrors for the future These were the forces I raised against him and drove him to that fatall execution of himselfe In revenge to you he died childlesse tortured lamenting and shedding teares His sorrow indeed was not long but enough for a father But that which is yet most cruell he fell by his own hand A death much more miserable and bitter then if another had been the author Here is my sword who claimes it whose weapon ever was it but mine who carried it into the fort who ever used it before the Tyrant or who sent it to him O Blade thou partner and successor in my great exploits after so many perills and so many slaughters are we neglected and held unworthy of reward should I demand a recompence for my sword only and should say Countreymen when the Tyrant had a mind to kill himselfe and for the time wanted a weapon my sword supplied him and became the instrument of all your Liberties you would certainly decide some honour or reward to the Blade Nay would you not have been thankfull to the master of so publick an instrument and have enrolled him among those who have been benefactors to their Countrey would you not have laid up my sword in your Temples and have sacrificed to it as to the Gods Consider with me I pray what in likelyhood the Tyrant did or said before he killed himselfe After I had stabbed his sonne and thrust him through with many wounds in the most open and remarkeable places of his body the more to torment his father with the spectacle and rack him with the sight he pittifully cried out and invok't his father unable to assist or rescue him being both old and feeble and having but just sight enough left to behold the Calamities of his house I in the meane time the contriver of the whole Tragedy conveyed my selfe away and left him a wounded body stage sword and all things else for the finishing of my part He entring and seeing his only sonne gasping and welring in his bloud strugling with death having received wounds all over and many of them mortall fell into this exclamation O my dear sonne we are destroyed butcherd and slaine as Tyrants Where is the Murtherer For whom reserves he me or what intends he to do with me who am already slaine in Thee doth he despise to kill me by reason of my age or is it to prolong my punishment and lengthen my death and spinne out my slaughter Thus saying he lookes about for a weapon being himselfe unarmed as still having his sonne for his defence which was there ready for him prepared before and left by me for the ensuing Tragedy Having drawn forth the sword out of the wound Thou hast halfe slaine me already said he now kill me outright Be thou the reliefe and succour of a forlorne father assist my decrepit hand with thy-edge and stabbe me whilest I am yet a Prince and deliver me from my sorrowes Would I had received thy first
poyson'd the gates were strictlier kept and no man was any more permitted to enter into the house whereat Demetrius much perplext and troubled and having no other way to relieve his friend went to the Magistrate and accused himselfe for one of those who broke into Anubis Temple Upon which confession he was presently carryed to the prison and brought to Antiphilus and with much petition obtained of the Keeper that he might be chained next to him in the same â—ives Here then was a rare expression of friendship to dispise his owne miseries and though he were himselfe sicke yet he tooke care that the other might sleep quietly and undisturbed Thus lessen'd they their misfortunes by communion Till not long after an Accident happen'd which did almost put a period to their sufferings For one of the prisoners having I know not from whence got a file and made most of the other prisoners of the conspiracy filed asunder a chain to which they were fasten'd by a row of shackles and let them all loose They having easily slaine their Keepers being but few issued forth in Tumults and presently dispersed themselves severall wayes as they safeliest might though many of them were afterwards taken Demetrius and Antiphilus remain'd and stay'd Syrus ready to follow the rest Next morning the Prefect of Aegypt knowing what had happen'd sent pursuers after them and sending for those who were with Demetrius releast them of their shackles much praysing them that they onely refused to make an escape They were not at all pleased with their manner of dismission Demetrius therefore proclam'd both himselfe friend much injured if being taken for malefactors they should be thought worthy of pitty or praise or releasement because they did not breake prison To conclude therefore they compelld the Judge more exactly to reexamini the business who finding them innocent with great praises of both and admiration of Demetrius acquitted them And as a recompence for the punishment and shackles which they unjustly suffer'd he gave them large gifts ten thousand drachmes to Antiphilus and twice so many to Demetrius Antiphilus is now in Aegypt But Demetrius bestowing his twenty thousand Drachmes on his friend went into India to the Brachmans saying onely thus much to Antiphilus at his departure that he hop't he was excusable if he then left him and that he needed not mony as long as he was of a composition to be content with a little nor that hee any farther wanted a friend whose affaires were so well accomplish't These were Graecian Friends Toxaris And here had you not in the beginning noted us for high talkers I could repeat to you the many excellent Orations spoken by Demetrius at his Arraignment where he made no defence for himselfe but spent teares and supplications for Antiphilus and tooke the whole offence upon himself till Syrus urged by scourging acquitted both These few examples of many famous and constant friends as they first offer'd themselves to my remembrance have I reported to you 'T is now time that finishing my Narration you should begin yours whom it will concerne to produce Scythians not of inferiour but of much more eminent example if you intend your right hand shall not be cut off Be constant to your selfe therefore For 't will show most ridiculous in you having so like a Sophister extoll'd Orestes and Pylades to show your selfe a bad Oratour for your Country Toxaris You do well Mnesippus to invite me to speake and not to show your selfe afraid that vanquisht by my narrations your tongue shall be cut out I begin then not like you with Trappings of speech a thing unusuall to Scythians since the realities of my stories shall be more eloquent then the Historian Nor are you to expect from me stories like yours who have magnified a man for wedding a deformed woman without a portion Another for giving two Talents in Marriage with his friends daughter a third for casting himselfe voluntarily into shackles knowing he was shortly after to be releast All which are slight passages and have nothing high or manly in them I will recount to you slaughters warres and deaths undergone for Friends whereby you shall perceive how childish your undertakings are compared to ours Yet it is not without cause that you admire your own small adventures since living in a firme establisht peace you want those Heroick opportunities by which friendships are to be tryed As you cannot judge in a calme of the Abilities of a Pilot which are best discovered in a storme Whereas we have continuall warres and do either invade others or are invaded our selves or joyning battle do fight for pastures or prey Hence stand we most in need of good friends whose Armes become unconquer'd and impregnable from the strictnesse of our friendships First then let mee tell you that the Ceremonies by which wee initiate friends are not like yours perform'd in Bowles and Potations or with our equals or neighbours but when we see a man valiant and able for great Actions wee all presently affect him and the same course which you take to win your wives do we take to beget friends We court them much and omit no application which may defeat us of their friendship or render us despised And when choice is made of a friend articles are next entred into and a solemne oath taken that they shall mutually live and if need be die for one another Next having open'd a veine in our hand we receive the blood in a cup in which wee dippe the points of our swords then both drinke nor can any thing afterwards divide us These leagues at most consist of three wee account of him who is a friend to more as we do of common adulterate wives and never thinke his a firme lasting friendship which is divided among many I will begin then with the late Deeds of Dandamis This Dandamis seeing his friend Amizocas taken prisoner in a skirmish with the Sarmatians But first I will take my oath as we agreed in the beginning By this Ayre and Sagar I will report no untruths Mnesippus of our Scythian friendships Mnesipp I might very well spare your oath Toxaris if you sweare by none of the Gods Toxaris Why Do not you take the Winde and Sagar for Gods or know you not that to Mortalls nothing is greater then life and death wee sweare by those two as often as we sweare by the Winde the cause of Life and a Sagar the cause of Death Mnesipp If this be a good reason you may have many such Gods as your Sagar as a Dart Speare and Poyson and a Rope for death is a various and numerous Deity and is by endlesse wayes attained Toxaris See what a caviller and wrangler you are thus to trouble and divert my discourse who all the while you spoke kept silence Mnesipp You deservedly chide mee Toxaris Hereafter therefore I will not interrupt you Proceed therefore in your story you shall have mee as silent as if
to our desires or vvho vvould covet to performe any high Action From hence you may conjecture hovv they vvould behave themelves in Warre armed for the defence of their Countrey Children Wives and Temples who naked for a wreath of wild Olive or Apples are enflamed with such a serious desire of victory How would you be affected should you see our Quayle and Cockfightings and our solemne studies of them perhaps you would laugh especially if you knew that our Custome were built upon a Law which commands all of docile Age to be present and to behold the Fowles contend to their utmost rigour But 't is no argument for Laughter For hereby an insensible contempt of Dangers steales into their soules who mean not to appear more degenerous or cowardly then Cocks And are hence taught not to yield to wounds wearinesse or other difficulties whatsoever Now to make the like trialls of them in Armes and to behold their mutuall slaughters were savage and inhumane 'T were great improvidence also to destroy those valiant men whose courages would be better imployed against an enemy Because then you resolve Anacharsis to see other parts of Greece pray remember when you arrive at Lacedaemon that you laugh not at them also nor think them vainly busied when met together in the Theater at Ball you see them strike one another or assembled in a place surrounded with water and divided into Battalions naked as they are they make a formall Warre upon one another till one side namely the Lycurgians drive the other namely the Herculeans out of the Island or force them backward into the mote whereupon followes peace and no man is afterwards struck especially when you see them whipt at an Altar and streaming with bloud their Fathers and Mothers standing by not at all moved with the Spectacle but threatning them if they shrink under their stripes and intreating them to hold out to their utmost patience and to take courage from their sufferings Hence many die under the scourge disdaining to faint in the presence of their familiars as long as they have life or to favour their bodies To whose honours you shall see statues publickly erected by the Spartans When therefore you see this done think them not madde or that they thus discipline their Children without just cause because no Tyrant is feared or enemy neer For Lycurgus their founder will give you very good reasons why he instituted such cruell customes being neither enemy nor carried by his hatred to the unprofitable destruction of the youth of the state but desirous to render these who were to defend their Country stout and of courage above their sufferings Or suppose Lycurgus should say nothing yet you your selfe know well that none such taken in warre did amidst the tortures of the enemy ever discover any secret of the Spartanes But smiled when they were rackt and strived with their Tormentors who should be first tired Anacharsis Was Lycurgus himselfe Solon in his young daies bred to the Whippe Or without trialls of his own was he only the author of the Discipline Solon He was very old before he wrote his Lawes and came thither from Creet where he had so journed a while because he heard they had the best Lawes having Minus the Sonne of Iupiter for their Lawgiver Anachars Why then Solon do not you imitate Lycurgus and whippe your Children An education wise and worthy of you Solon Because we hold our own native exercises sufficient and think forrain imitation below us Anachars Or rather because you understand I suppose how ridiculous 't is to be whipt naked and to supplicate with erected hands without profit either to him that is vvhipt or to the state If I come to Sparta therefore at a time vvhen they discipline they cannot but forthvvith publiquely stone me for I shall laugh to see them scourged like Theeves Pilferers or such like malefactors For clearly a Citty accustomed to such ridiculous sufferings in my Judgment should be purged with Hellebore Solon Think not generous Sir being alone Orator and solitary and no repliers present you have vanquisht you will meet those at Sparta who will give probable satisfaction Since then I have made you a just report of our Customes which you have entertained with no great approbation Let me not seem unreasonable if I request a brief report from you how you Scythians do breed your children and by what exercises you make them stout and valiant Anacharsis 'T is but Justice Solon I will therefore make you a narration of our Scythian Customes not so glorious perhaps or gratefull to you as your own for we are not so valiant as to strike one another on the cheek yet such as they are you shall hear Till to morrow then if you think fit let us break off our Discourse that in private I may the better recollect what you have said and furnish my memory with what I am to say Here then put we a period to this conference and depart For the evening cometh on A Discourse of sorrowing for the Dead 'T Is worthy the Observation what many in their sorrow do and say and what is said by those that comfort them how they account some accidents intollerable both to those that mourn and to those that are mourned When by Pluto and Proserpina they not at all understand whither they be evill and deplorable or gratefull and desireable to the sufferers but make fashion and custome the rule of their grief For when any body dies this is their manner But first I will tell you what opinions they hold of Death Whereby it shall appear upon what grounds they are thus superfluous The greater part of people whom the wise call Idiots building their faith upon Homer Hesiod and other Fablers and making their Poetry their Law imagine a certain deep place or hell under ground large spacious darke and sunlesse yet so lightsome in appearance as to represent to them every thing there In this vault as one of them told me the story raignes Iupiters brother call'd Pluto honour'd with that stile from the store of Ghosts wherewith he is enricht whose forme of Commonwealth and the life of soules infernall is thus ordered It fell to him by Division and Lot to rule over the Dead which as he receives he binds in unavoidable Chaines and permits none to return but some few once in an Age upon weighty reasons Through his Countrey run Rivers great and terrible from their very Names called Cocytus and Phlegeton and the like And what is yet worse the entrance to it is the Lake of Acheron which first receives all Commers and is not to be past or sayled over without a Ferryman being for depth not to be waded and for breadth not to be swumme over In a word the Ghosts of Fowles departed cannot fly over it In the Descent seated in a Gate of Adamant sits Aeacus the Kings Cousin German who commands the passage Neere him lieth a dogge with
Gold in his account differ at all from fire But pleaders and what is yet more unworthy they who professe wisedome are so wretchedly affected with gayne that some of the most famed Philosophers for I forbear to speake of Oratours sell justice for reward others take pay for teaching their Scholers Sophistry Another is not ashamed to receive a pension from the King for his attendance Another though of decrepit age travells and hires himself out like an Indian or Scythian Captive nor hold they gain to be a word of reproach Nor are these their only faults you may perceive them lyable to the most unruly passions too as discontents rages envyings and lusts of all sorts Affections unknown to a parasite Whose patience suffers him not to be angry nor hath he an enemy to be angry with If at any time he be provokt his Choller is not troublesome or mischievous but rather stirres mirth and delights the company Of all men he is least troubled with sadnesse For 't is the benefit and priviledge of his profession to grieve at nothing Besides he hath neither wealth nor house nor servant nor wife nor children whose losse may afflict him Then he neither covets reputation nor riches nor beauty Tychiades But methinks Simo want of maintenance should grieve him Parasite You are deceived Tychiades if you take him for a true parasite who at any time wants maintenance As he is not valiant who wants courage nor he wise who lacks wisedom so 't is with a Parasite Of whom I novv speak as he is a parasite in deed not in title and name If then a valiant man be not valiant if he have not valour nor a vvise man vvise if he have not vvisedom so a parasite is not a parasite unlesse he have the Art of a Parasite He then that cannot suck maintenance from any other man falls not under my discourse of a parasite Tychiades Will you never allow him then to vvant maintenance Parasite No. Which makes him not grieve for that or any thing else Whereas all Philosophers and great Oratours are surrounded vvith feares So that you may see most of them vvalk vvith staves vvhich they vvould not do if they feared not other men weapond Then they firmly bolt their doores to prevent any night attempt Whilest the parasite slightly shuts the doore of his cottage meerly to keep out the wind A night attempt no more frights him then if there were no such matter If he be to passe though a desert he travells without a sword so secure and fearlesse is he But I have often seen Philosophers upon no appearance of danger make ready their bow nor dare they go to a bathe or invitation without a staffe Then no man can charge a parasite with adultery force rapine or any other crime For then he were not a parasite but would much wrong himself so that if he should be caught in adultery he should with the offence purchase the name too For as a malefactor leaves of to be a good man and becomes a wicked so an offending parasite leaves off to be what he was and assumes the compellation of his offence But we not only see many such offences committed by the Philosophers of our times but have large monuments of their crimes recorded in their writings Socrates Aeschines Hyperides Demosthenes and most Oratours and Philosophers have had their Apologyes But never Parasite needed a defence because no man can give an instance of an invective writ against him Tychiades I confesse a Parasites life is much better then an Oratours or Philosophers but his death is worse Parasite 'T is much happier For wee know that all or most Philosophers have had unfortunate ends Some found guilty and sentenced for heynous offences by poyson others have wholy perisht by fire others by the strangury others have dyed banisht But none can tell of a Parasite who dyed so or who had not the happinesse to dye eating and drinking Or if any have felt a violent death 't was a flight not an execution Tychiades You have sufficiently compared a Parasite with Philosophers It now remaines that you show of what use he is to his nourisher and patron For methinks rich men maintain you out of benevolence and charity not without your infamies who are so maintained Parasite I thought you not so simple Tychiades as not to know that a rich man though he possesses Gyges wealth dining alone is poor and appearing in publique without his parasite is a beggar And as a Souldier without his armes or apparell without its scarlet or a horse without his trappings is pricelesse so a rich man without his parasite is held base and contemptible so that the parasite is a credit to the rich man but not the rich man to the parasite Nor is it what ever you thinke any disgrace for the worse to be parasite to the better It behooves then every rich man to keep his parasite both for the honour and the safety which he receives from his attendance For no man will easily offer to quarrell with him so guarded Next no man that keeps a parasite can well be poysond For who will make such an attempt upon him who hath such a taster A rich man then not only receives fame but preservation from his parasite who out of affection to his patron undergoes all his dangers and chooseth not only to eat but to dye with him Tychiades Trust mee Simo you have not been defective nor came you as you pretended unprepared to the deciphering of your Art of which you seem to be so practised a master For the future therefore if you can deliver the name from disgrace I will learn to be a parasite Parasite To this my answer shall be since you thinke I have otherwise said enough a question to which answer as well as you can What did the Ancients call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tychiades Food Parasite And doth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie to be fed Tychiades Yes Parasite 'T is plain then that to be a parasite which is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anothers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meate is nothing but to be one fed by another Tychiades Therein Simo lyes the infamy and scandall Parasite Pray answer me once more which of the two would you choose To be the saylor or passenger Tychiades The passenger Parasite The Racer or the Better Tychiades The Better Parasite The Horse or the Rider Tychiades The Rider Parasite The Arrow or the Archer Tychiades The Archer Parasite And would you not rather choose to be fed then to be the feeder Tychiades I confesse my self convinced Henceforth like school-boyes I vvill come to you mornings and afternoons to learne your Art Which being your first scholer I hope you vvill teach me vvithout reservation or envy For they say mothers love their first child best The Lover of Lyes or the incredulous The Speakers Tychiades and Philocles Tychiades CAn you tell me the reason
Antigonus the Physitian seconding him said I Eucrates have also a brazen Hippocrates about a cubit long which as soon as the Candles are put out walkes circularly through all the house making a noyse overturning boxes compounding medicines and flinging open doors especially if we omit to pay him his yearly sacrifice Doth Hippocrates the Physitian then require to be sacrificed to said I and take it ill if he be not feasted with oblations at his set times Methinkes 'twere honour enough to power wine to him or crown him with Garlands Hear another passage said Eucrates which I with many other witnesses saw about five years past One harvest time having dispatcht my reapers about noon into the field I solitarily retired my self into a wood to weigh and consider of some things Where at my first entrance I heard the howling of dogges which I imagined to be my sonne Mnason going then abroad as his manner is with his companions to sport themselves and hunt But 't was otherwise For presently after followed an Earthquake and a hideous bellowing like thunder After this I saw a woman comming towards me of horrible aspect and neer half a furlong tall having in her left hand a Torch in her right a Sword at least twenty cubits long She had downward feet like a Serpent upwards in the horrour of her countenance and visage she resembled a Gorgon having Snakes for hair which partly twind about her neck others hung loose on her shoulders See my good friends said Eucrates how I yet tremble to tell the story and withall show'd us the hairs on his armes stiffe and erected with fear Ion all the while and Dinomachus and Cleodemus ancient men gave him serious attention as if drawn by the nose and exprest a silent adoration of the incredible Colossus-half-furlong-woman and gyant-like Hobgoblin But I consider'd with my self that such men as they who read wisedome to young scholers and were generally admired differd only from children in their gray haires and long beards and were in all things else more easy to be deceived then they Here Dinomachus put in and said pray tell me Eucrates of what size and bignesse were her hounds Bigger then Indian Elephants replyed he and alike black their skinne as rough squallide and fowle I when I saw them stood still and withall turnd the seale of the ring which the Arabian gave mee to the inside of my finger Whereupon Hecate striking the the ground with her serpentine feet made a great Cleft which reacht to hell into which she sunk by degrees I assuming courage and taking hold of a neighbouring tree least astonisht with the darknesse I should chance to fall in headlong lookt in and saw all the things of Hell The burning lake of Phlegeton Cerberus and Ghosts some of which I knew especially my father whom I saw in the very garments wee buried him Pray Eucrates said Ion what did the soules departed do What should they do answer'd he but converse in companies and societies with their frends and Allyes in the Daffodill mead Henceforth then said Ion let the followers of Epicurus urge arguments against Plato and his discourses of the soul. But did you not see Socrates and Plato among the dead Socrates replied he I saw but not more clearly then to guesse at him by his baldness and strutting belly Plato I knew not nor is 't fit I speak more then truth to my friendes After I had taken an exact and universall survey of things the vault closed and some of my servants of which my man Pyrrhias here was one came thither to seek me before 't was quite shut Speake Pyrrhias do I say true Most true by Iupiter Sir said the fellow for I my self heard the barking of the dogges through the cave and saw the flashes of the Torch Here I smiled to hear the howling and flames put in by the witnesse You have seen nothing strange said Cleodemus or what hath not been seen by others For I in my sicknesse not long since saw the like apparition At which time Antigonus here visited me and gave me seven dayes Physick for a feaver more hot and violent then fire One day all left the room shut the door and stay'd without by your prescription Antigonus if perchance solitarinesse might entice me into a slumber But I lying awake saw a goodly youth approach me clothed in white who after he had raysed me lead me through such another cleft down to hell as I presently perceived when I beheld Tantalus Tityus and Sisyphus What need I report to you the rest Briefly I was brought to a Tribunal where vvere present Aeacus Charon the Destinies and Furies Where also one sate as King vvho seemed to be Pluto by his reading of a Catalogue of their names who were to dye and had already out-lived their limited time The young man brought me and presented me to him But Pluto much displeased said to him his thred is not yet quite â—punne let him therefore depart again And fetch Demylus the Brasier who hath exceeded his distaffe Whereupon I joyfully return'd releast of my feaver and told all my neighbours that Demylus was shortly to dye Who then also lay sick as 't was reported And shortly after wee heard the Cryes of them that lamented his death What miracle is this Said Antigonus I knew one who after he had been buried twenty dayes rose again For I gave him Physick before his death and after his resurrection Methinkes said I in twenty dayes his body should putrifie or perish with famine Unlesse you administred to an Epimenides As we thus discourst came in Eucrates sonnes from exercise One a grown youth the other about the age of fifteen Who having saluted us sate down upon the bed by their father and a chair was brought for me Here Eucrates taking fresh hint from the presence of his sonnes said so may I have Comfort of these two and laid his hands on them as that which I shall now tell you Tychiades is true 'T is well known how dearly I loved my vvife the mother of these of happy memory vvhich I exprest both in my carriage to her vvhile she lived after her death For I burnt vvith her her vvhole vvardrobe the garments she most delighted in vvhen she lived The seventh day after her funerall I lay in this bed as I do novv having abated my sorrovv And silently reading to my self Plato's little tract of the soul Demaenete entred and sate dovvn by me as Eucratides pointing to his younger son doth now The boy childishly trembled and vvaxt pale at the narration I proceeded Eucrates as soon as I beheld her imbraced her and sobbingly shed teares She permitted me not to vveep but blamed me that after all my other expressions of affection to her I had not burnt one of her guilt pantofles which she said was fallen down behind a chest which we not finding cast only the other into the funerall pile As we thus talkt